In the spring of 1884 Itō became Minister of the Imperial Household, and a special bureau was formed in that department for the purpose of drawing up a Constitution under his direction. The choice of the Household Department for this task was determined by political considerations. It was desired to emphasize the point that the constitution was granted of his own accord by the Sovereign, not wrested from him by his subjects. There was also a wish to impress upon the nation the fact that the Throne was the source of all authority. The arrangement had also the advantage of disarming criticism, while the privacy associated with the proceedings of a department representing the Court removed all risk of interference from outside.
Soon after Itō’s appointment as Minister of the Household new orders of nobility were created, the model adopted being that of the continent of Europe. With the fall of the Shōgunate, and the abolition of the feudal system, all territorial titles had disappeared. Gone also were the empty Court, or official, titles, so eagerly sought, the bestowal of which had been one of the last surviving prerogatives of the Crown.
An account of these ancient titles has already been given. Many of them had become hereditary in the families which held them, and their disappearance had been viewed with regret in many quarters. The creation of the new orders of nobility, therefore, gained much popularity for the new Minister of the Household. There was indeed a special reason for the measure. It was the first step towards the establishment of a constitutional régime. A House of Peers was to be a leading feature of the Constitution now in course of preparation, and it was essential to create a new nobility before the institution of which it was to form a part came into operation. Some five hundred peers in all were created, the number including 12 princes, 24 marquises, 74 counts, 321 viscounts and 69 barons. The recipients of these new titles were the ex-Kugé, or Court nobles, the ex-daimiōs, who under the feudal system had constituted the territorial nobility, and ex-samurai, still in office, who had rendered eminent service to the State at the time of the Restoration. Not unnaturally the lion’s share of the titles received by commoners fell to Satsuma and Chōshiū men. Assuming the number of ex-Kugé to be 150, and that of the ex-daimiōs to be 300, it will be seen that the number of commoners ennobled amounted to only one-tenth of the whole. The disproportionately large number of viscounts created is explained by the fact that there was little difference in the positions of most of the territorial nobility, although each had his fixed place in the table of official precedence. It was, therefore, difficult to make any discrimination in these cases when the old system of things was translated into the new. It would appear, moreover, that this was also the case with the old Court nobility. Among the ex-samurai to be ennobled were the Chōshiū statesmen, Itō, Yamagata and Inouyé, and three Satsuma members of the Government, Kuroda, the younger Saigō, and Matsugata, all of whom became Counts. The services of other ex-samurai who had distinguished themselves at the time of the Restoration, but were in opposition when the new nobility was created, were recognized some years later, Ōkuma, Itagaki and Gotō then receiving the same title of Count.
In the reorganization of the administrative system which took place in the following year the hand of the new Minister of the Household could again be seen. The previous reorganization of the Ministry had occurred in 1871. The changes then made had been of two kinds: the substitution in the new Government of the leading spirits of the Restoration in place of representatives of the feudal aristocracy, thus strengthening the progressive element in the Ministry; and the separation of the Central Executive into three branches directed by the three chief Ministers of State (the Daijō Daijin, or Prime Minister, the Sadaijin, or Minister of the Left, and the Udaijin, or Minister of the Right). Under this system, which, in its main outlines, had continued ever since, there was no clear division between the different departments of State, nor had the Prime Minister, in whose name all decrees were issued, proper control over the ministers in charge of them, who were all independent of each other. The effect of the change now introduced, in imitation of the German Cabinet system, was to give increased importance and authority to the post of Premier who received the new designation of Minister President of the Cabinet. By the creation of a new Department of Agriculture and Commerce the number of State Departments was increased to nine. The Ministers of these Departments, together with the Minister President, constituted the Cabinet. The Imperial Household formed a separate department, the Minister of the Household not being included in the Cabinet. Under the new arrangement the Premier virtually directed the policy of the State, and was eligible for a portfolio, if he chose to hold one. Like the German Chancellors under Hohenzollern rule, he was responsible for the whole administration, while exercising a general control over all Departments. The changes involved in this administrative reorganization, which is still in existence, had also another and deeper signification. They meant the final triumph of Western ideas, and the open assumption of the reins of Government by the men who had up to that time been working behind the scenes.
Other changes effected about this time, and due to the initiative of the same statesman, were the creation of the office of Lord Keeper of the Seals (Naidaijin) who presided over a body of fifteen Court Councillors (Kiūchiū-Komonkwan), whose duties were to give advice regarding Court ceremonies and usages; and the establishment of a system of competitive examinations for employment in the Civil Service. This reform, which one is tempted to regard as the application of one of the principles mentioned in the Imperial Oath, though the motive may have been simply the same that prompted other Western innovations, put an end to much of the favouritism which had previously influenced official appointments, and had furnished political agitators with a useful cry. A further indication of progressive tendencies was furnished by the adoption of English as a subject of study in primary schools. This step was an official recognition of the influence it had exercised and was still exercising upon the modern development of Japan. That influence has been fully recognized by Japanese writers. In Fifty Years of New Japan, a book to which reference has been made more than once in these pages, Professor Haga, speaking of the effects of the reopening of Japan to foreign intercourse, tells us that it has always been through books in the English language that the Japanese people formed their conceptions of things European, and obtained glimpses of the general features of the outside world. Elsewhere in the same work Professor Nitobé, who studied chiefly in the United States, remarks that “the effect of the English tongue on the mental habits [? mentality] of the Japanese people is incalculable”; and he adds that “the moral influence of some of the simple text-books used in our schools cannot be overrated.”
The year 1886 is associated with a financial reform of the first importance—the resumption of specie payments, in other words, the substitution of convertible for inconvertible paper money. When dwelling for a moment in a previous chapter on the financial difficulties confronting the new Government that was formed after the Restoration, mention was made of the confused state of the monetary system at that time, and more especially the chaotic condition of the paper money then in circulation. From a History of the Currency published by the Government in the above mentioned year we learn that the money in use at the beginning of the Meiji era (1868) included four kinds of gold coins (one being a coin not in general use); two kinds of silver coins, besides bars and balls of silver of fixed weights; six kinds of copper, brass and iron coins, known by the general term of zeni, or “cash” (one of these being merely a money token, and not an actual coin); and no less than 1600 different currencies of paper money. Much of the coinage was debased. The paper currencies emanated partly from the central Tokugawa Government and partly from the local feudal authorities. More than two-thirds of the 270 odd clans then in existence, and eight hatamoto territories, had paper currencies of their own, and in many cases issues of different dates were in circulation together. This paper money, too, was of various kinds. There were gold notes, silver notes, sen notes, notes representing fixed amounts in copper, brass and iron “cash,” as well as rice notes representing definite quantities of rice, and used in the payment of taxes, which were levied chiefly in kind. There were also what were called “credit notes”—issued in return for money deposited by the commercial establishments which did duty for banks in those days—representing gold, silver, cash, or rice, as the case might be. The mischief was intensified by the erroneous ideas then held as to the proper ratio between gold and silver, and between these two metals and copper, which enabled the foreign trader to make illegitimate profits, and caused great loss to the country. The steps taken by the Government, after the establishment of a mint, and the abolition of the feudal system, to remedy this state of things included the withdrawal of current issues of coin and paper money, and the issue of other currency in their place. The first effect, therefore, of these measures was to increase the existing confusion. The issue of the new coinage struck at the Ōsaka mint also tended to obscure the situation. Though the standard adopted was nominally a gold one, in its working it became bimetallic; for in 1878 the Government allowed one-yen silver coins to come into general and unrestricted circulation, a step which was tantamount to changing the monometallic standard into a bimetallic one.
Prince Itō.
Took an active part in the Government formed after the Restoration; he was the chief framer of the Japanese Constitution and parliamentary institutions, and founder of the Seiyūkai. His last post was that of Governor General of Korea.
Meanwhile, by the establishment in 1872 of National Banks, empowered to issue notes in a certain proportion to their capital, it was sought to facilitate the withdrawal of the old paper money, encourage banking enterprise on a modern system, and place matters generally on a more satisfactory footing. At the end of four years only four National Banks, the pioneers in Japan of modern banking, having come into existence, it was found necessary to revise the National Bank regulations. The revision had immediate effect. Within five years the number of National Banks had increased from four to one hundred and fifty-one, many of which, however, as Baron Shibusawa, the well-known banker, explains in his chapter on banking in Fifty Years of New Japan, were local undertakings of limited importance. One of the objects of the establishment of National Banks, the encouragement of banking enterprise, had thus been achieved. Progress had also been made in the attainment of another object, the redemption of previous paper currencies by the issue of Paper Money (Kinsatsu) Exchange Bonds and Pension Bonds, which the National Banks were allowed to hold as security for their note issue. But the permission given to the National Banks to issue notes had been made use of too freely, with the result that paper money depreciated considerably in value; and when during the Satsuma rebellion the Government had recourse to a further large issue of notes in order to meet increased expenditure, a further fall in value occurred. The lowest level in the price of paper money was reached in the spring of 1881, when it stood at a discount of over 70 per cent. The creation of the Bank of Japan in the following year furnished the country with a banking centre independent of the National Banks, in a position to exercise a check on their operations, and empowered to issue convertible notes on the basis of a specie reserve which the National Banks were required to deposit with it; and a year later the then Minister of Finance, Mr. (afterwards Marquis) Matsugata, introduced a scheme for the cessation of the privilege of issuing notes given to these banks, the gradual withdrawal of their note issue in circulation, and the alteration of their status to that of private banks. The adoption of these and other steps, into the details of which it is unnecessary to enter, rendered it at last possible to effect specie resumption on a silver basis. A Notification to this effect was issued in June, 1885, and the measure came into force on the 1st January, 1886. The gold standard now in existence was not established until eleven years later.
The same year (1886) witnessed a revival of political agitation. This had, as we have seen, died down after the failure of the first attempt to organize political parties in preparation for the promised parliament, and the extremist members of the now numerous party of advanced reformers had been tempted to employ more violent methods to attain their ends, with results already described. In September of that year a meeting of politicians of all shades of liberal and radical opinion was held in the Capital to concert measures for the taking of united action. Simultaneously with this renewed activity the field of operations was extended. Ever since the agitation had assumed a more or less organized form the politicians conducting it had confined their attention almost exclusively to domestic affairs. Now, however, an important foreign question came before the public in a shape more definite than before. This was the question of Treaty Revision.